Seeking Alpha: Here We Go Again With AEterna Zentaris ... Again

Maybe H.P. Lovecraft was really a prophet of biotech when he wrote "That is not dead which can eternal lie," as it clearly seems like there are certain biotechs that come back again and again… and again. While the failure of AEterna Zentaris' (AEZS) drug perifosine in colorectal cancer led to a major drop in the share price and the end of a variety of silly rumors regarding the company's prospects of being taken over by a Big Pharma company, it looks like the company has once again attracted some hope and optimism.

Follow this link to continue to the full article:
Here We Go Again With AEterna Zentaris ... Again

Seeking Alpha: Is AEterna Zentaris Really Worth All This Fuss?

As a general rule, if you want to get the hate mail rolling in, write about a controversial biotech stock. And since I'm feeling a decided lack of people questioning my intelligence, ethics, and consanguinity of my parents, I thought I would wade into the maelstrom that is AEterna Zentaris (AEZS).

A New Contender For A Sizable Market
Treatment-resistant cancers are a popular target for biotechs and pharmaceuticals these days, as the thresholds of approvable efficacy tend to be more reasonable and the lack of alternatives usually supports very profitable pricing. One of the larger markets within this group is resistant colorectal cancer; although colorectal cancer is generally very treatable if caught early, not all patients are so lucky and the sheer frequency of the cancer makes the treatment-resistant population sizable.

Read the full piece here:
Is AEterna Zentaris Really Worth All This Fuss?

Investopedia: Should Biotech Investors Go Where Institutions Won't?

Some investors find safety in numbers, while others dream of discovering the next big thing long before the big institutions. When it comes to biotech investing, though, investors may want to consider just how wise it is to invest where the big institutions fear to tread. While nobody has a fail-safe method of identifying the best biotech stocks, it seems like investing in biotechs with minimal institutional support is a gamble that just isn't worth taking. 

Framing the Problem 

The biggest problem with biotech, and the biggest reason why there can be such outsized gains for investors in the industry, is that nobody truly knows if a drug will work (or be approvable) until very late in the process. Pick the right stock, Alexion (Nasdaq:ALXN) in the late 1990s, and the rewards can be enormous. Pick the wrong stock, say Essential Therapeutics or Shaman Pharmaceuticals, and it can result in a big (if not total) loss of capital. 

A few biotechs manage to muddle along, posting just enough promising early trial data to keep accessing the capital markets, but for the most part investing in biotechs with no approved drugs is a binary outcome. With that sort of expected outcome tree, it clearly makes sense for investors to use all resources at their disposal to winnow the list of credible investment candidates, and institutional support may be one metric to consider.

To read the full piece, please click the link to Investopedia:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Should-Biotech-Investors-Go-Where-Institutions-Wont-ALXN-YMI-ZIOP-ONTY-MNKD-NEOP-MELA0707.aspx

ASCO - A Big Deal For Biotechs (Pt 2)

This is the second of three articles previewing the ASCO meetings in Chicago next week.

One of the major biotech events of the year is fast approaching. The annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place in Chicago June 4-8. This event is like Woodstock for biotechnology - if Woodstock were clean, air-conditioned and had plenty of restrooms. If you invest in biotechs or pharmaceuticals that want to play in the huge and well-reimbursed world of oncology, this is one of the major events of the year.

Ahead of the meeting, ASCO releases a list of abstracts that scientists and companies will present. In some cases, these abstracts give away at least most of the story (efficacy, safety, etc.), while other abstracts are embargoed until the meeting itself. In any case, investors can still look forward to follow-up data (abstracts are submitted well ahead of the meeting), and often the amount of attention garnered by a presentation reflects overall interest in the compound. (For more, see Stocks On Drugs: What It Takes To Get High.)

To read the full text of Part 2, please continue on to: 
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/ASCO---A-Big-Deal-For-Biotechs-BMY-ARIA-ARQL-KERX-AEZS-NKTR-VNDA0527.aspx